


Black Mesa Bar and Eatery

by BrutalPipeMurder



Category: half life vr but the ai are self aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, M/M, Not A Game AU, Sweet Voice drinks, They/Themry, Trans Gordon Freeman, gordon is so tired, whoops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26612929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrutalPipeMurder/pseuds/BrutalPipeMurder
Summary: Gordon Freeman is a normal man. He quit his stupid lab job after a... incident and he's doing... fine. Sure, he has a kid and does streaming for a living while he tries to scramble for more income but it's fine.A weekend drinking while Josh and his ex are together will be fine. Wait. What? What the fuck do you mean there's a bar that has the name of his old job? The lab that blew the fuck up a couple months back? Okay, he has to check this shit out.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 94





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> haha whoops. i dont know what you mean i have no other fics to be working on i swear. okok ngl, im a littttllleee bit fucked up rn so ill try to do other shit but for now have a whole new fic.

Gordon was fucking tired. Through trying to find a job, streaming and taking care of Joshua, he was really tired. Luckily for him, his ex husband had Josh for the weekend, so he was free to drink. Honestly, he wandered the city for a while, trying to figure out where to go. He didn’t want to go to a very popular bar, for fear of the noise, so he decided to try and find a newer bar to relax at.

He let out a small sigh as he passed a large building. Please just let him find a nice bar. And like a holy sign, there was a poster. The Black Mesa bar. He paused. Black Mesa. They couldn’t possibly be referencing the lab, right? The one that is totally fucking destroyed? The one that he used to work at? No way. It must be a fucked up coincidence. It wasn’t too far away and it seemed like it would be nice. He took note of the address in his head and quickly made his way there. Once he found it, he was pleasantly surprised by the look of the place. Neat and tidy, but lived in. 

He approached the door and entered the bar, a smile crossing his face when he noted that, while there were a lot of people, they were mostly minding their own business and it wasn’t really that loud. The speakers played ‘Dr. Feelgood’ on repeat. The man crossed the large room to the bar, where he took a seat. A thin, old looking man with glasses approached him, giving him a look. 

“Howdy,” Gordon muttered to the man, pretty worn out from all the walking and searching. The bartender (he presumed) cocked an eyebrow and leaned back a bit. 

“You look like shit,” the man stated bluntly. Gordon let out a tired sounding half snicker, running his flesh hand through his hair. His prosthetic sat unmoving on the bar as he leaned back a little as well on the stool. The old man stared for a moment before beginning to make a drink of some kind. Gordon couldn’t really tell what he was making, but it looked cool.

Soon, the bartender placed a drink in front of him, gesturing to it. It was a strange colour, going from bland white to a mid-tone blueish colour. The bartender spoke up again. “White to blue means a rest for you.” He muttered blandly. It seemed like it was rehearsed, but Gordon didn’t mind. He glanced at the man’s name tag which read ‘Bubby’ and under read ‘he/him’. There’s no way that’s actually his name right? 

To be perfectly honest, he was pretty hesitant about the drink, but the way Bubby was staring at him was kind of making him anxious so he took a sip. It actually tasted pretty nice. It was hard to pin down a flavour. But the way it made him feel. He felt… relaxed. He didn’t know how the fuck that happened, and for a moment, he thought he had been drugged. But Bubby just nodded to himself, almost proud looking. 

“Okay, now that you’re not going to pass out on my bar, pay up, that isn’t free.” Bubby crossed his arms. Gordon let out a sigh and nodded.

“How much is it?” He asked in response, pulling out his wallet. He imagined it’d probably be expensive. That’s how drinks are nowadays. Not that he knows how much drinks were back then. He wasn’t that old. 

Bubby stared at him for a moment. “7 dollars. Mostly as a thank you for not passing out on my bar.” Gordon looked surprised, but handed the man his money and took another sip of the drink. It really was calming. Is this legal? He decided not to think too hard on it.

While Gordon was thinking about the legality of whatever was in this drink, Bubby had huffed and left him to his devices and a new person was approaching him.

“hey. are you allowed to drink that?” A voice startled the man out of his thoughts. Gordon turned to see a rather short person(?) wearing a helmet staring at him. The person was wearing a security vest and was startlingly pale. The helmet mostly blocked their face from view but you could see the slightest of yellows if you looked hard enough. They were also wearing a name tag, and this one said ‘Benrᵉy’ and ‘they/them | he/him’. The ‘e’ was added seemingly after the first letters, if how small the letter is says anything. “i’d like to see your id.”

Gordon looked surprised for a moment, as he thought he looked pretty mature but shrugged it off and took out his id, showing it to the guard with no worry. Benrey squinted their eyes at the card before shaking their head. “nah. your face is too fuckin’.....uh... baby. gotta be fake.”

At that, he frowned. “No, man, this is my ID.” Benrey squinted again, looking at his face and then the ID, shaking their head disapprovingly. They looked almost disappointed. If it weren’t for the fact that Gordon had never met this person in his life, he would’ve felt bad, almost. “Dude, even if it was a fake ID, which it isn’t, I already have a drink, so obviously the bartender thought I was old enough.”

“well, bubby doesn’t care.”

“Are you saying that he doesn’t care about his job??”

“he’s too busy… thinking about fruit loops all day.” 

Gordon paused. What? Fruit loops?? Did he not have breakfast or something? Why was he even considering this person’s inane bullshit?? He just shook his head slightly and took another sip of his drink. Benrey stared at him for a moment before sitting on the seat next to him. The brunette glanced to the side for a second, taken by surprise.

“...soooooo… you play video games?” Benrey asked casually, kicking their legs childishly. Honestly, this person changed attitudes so quickly. Gordon huffed, taking a sip of his drink again. He paused for a moment. Did they actually expect an answer?

“...yeah. I’m a streamer.” He replied, giving Benrey the side eye for a moment, before looking back to his drink. The colours were still interesting to him. A lot of alcohols come in a bunch of different colours and flavours, but this one had no discernible flavour and colours that were scarily vibrant. 

Benrey looked surprised at his answer. “bro really? dope. what games do you play?” They seemed legitimately interested in this topic. Gordon was so caught off guard by the personality change that he didn’t notice the shocked faces of Bubby and another man from the back. 

“Uh. A bunch of shit. I mostly do VR stuff because… I dunno, I have it?” He shrugged, taking another sip of his drink. The more he drank, the more relaxed he felt. The tiredness began to seep out of him and he felt… better. Benrey seemed impressed by his answer. 

Benrey continued to kick their feet as they replied slowly. “i don’t have a vr headset. been meaning to get one though.” They muttered, crossing their arms over the table and laying their head down on it. Gordon couldn’t imagine that being comfortable with the helmet on, but to each their own.

“Shit, dude, hope you get one. Maybe if you do, we could play together some time.” Gordon awkwardly comforted them, giving them an awkward smile and a pat on the shoulder. They looked at him for a moment and he could’ve sworn their eyes were bright yellow. They started coughing into their hand, not violently, but softly. When they pulled away, Gordon could’ve swore he saw dots of pink and mauve in their hand. They quickly wiped it away. 

“thanks bro.” Benrey muttered in response, before instantly getting up and walking away with no warning. Gordon was surprised and almost felt offended at the lack of communication. Either way, he huffed again and took another drink out of his glass, finishing the drink. Bubby soon approached him after that, staring at him with an indiscernible expression.

“How did you do that?” The man asked, blankly staring at Gordon. Said man was pretty startled and had no clue what he was talking about. Did he do something wrong? Did he really look that young and Bubby thought that he was swindled? “How did you get Benrey to talk to you?” 

What.

Gordon was fucking reeling right now. He paused and let it sink in. What does that mean?? Does Benrey not talk usually? Did he do some fucking weirdass magic on accident??? “What? I- uh, he just came up to me and started talking?” Muttered Gordon, hoping it counted as an explanation.

Bubby stared at him for a moment. As if he was incredulous that anything similar to this happened. Gordon stared back, hopelessly confused. He could hear the cogs turning in the old man’s head as they stared at each other. The bartender sighed and pulled out a glass, huffing. Gordon was still very confused but quickly dismissed it as Benrey being a genuinely shy person. 

“Want another drink?” Bubby asked, cocking an eyebrow and giving Gordon a ‘look’. The look was somewhat intimidating but also was pretty boring because… well, he’s an old man. Gordon sat there for a moment before nodding. 

“Yeah. Anything’s fine.” He replied easily, slumping over a little bit. Bubby looked… excited at that? And suddenly, Gordon was a bit more hesitant about letting the bartender do whatever. But it was too late. The man had already started to make a complicated looking drink and the more he did, the more excited he looked. Right at the end, Bubby’s excitement peaked as he dusted cinnamon on top, setting it alight. Everyone in the bar cheered. 

Gordon seemed pretty confused. When did Bubby pull out a blowtorch? And where did he put it? Why did the fire seemingly come out of nowhere?? 

As weird as the bar was, however, he knew he would continue coming. As a scientist, he was drawn to weird things. And this bar was full of them. Plus, the drinks were fucking spectacular. Maybe he’d come more often. He could hear someone call out from the back of the bar where food was being cooked. “Doctor Bubby! You shouldn’t do that so openly!” The voice, while old, had joy in it. It was strangely… familiar.

Doctor? Gordon grimaced, looking down at his prosthetic and grimacing. He grumbled under his breath, remembering when he was a ‘doctor’. Thank fuck he was past that point in his life but, he still didn’t like thinking about it. He took the drink that Bubby had slid to him with a flourish. He raised it lazily as a thanks. He took a sip, watching as a short man exited the kitchen and for a moment, Gordon could swear he was familiar. But he quickly shook the feeling and tried to focus on the flavours of his drink. 

“Doctor Coomer! Shouldn’t you stay in the kitchen?” Bubby asked, quickly moving over to the other man. A couple other patrons laughed and a couple awwed. Are those two dating? Married? He just shook his head quietly and leaned on the bar. But after just a couple minutes of blankly staring at the bar and tuning out the two old men bickering, a gasp was heard. 

The gasp seemed to be coming from ‘Doctor Coomer’, Gordon noted as he turned to face the older male. “Is that Doctor Freeman?” The elder asked incredulously, staring straight at Gordon with an excited looking face. For a moment, he was confused. How did he know his last name? How did he know he used to be a scientist? But within moments, his brain supplied how he knew him. 

Doctor Harold P Coomer, his old supervisor and first work friend.

A look of pure shock washed over his face for just a moment as Coomer laughed joyously and sprinted over to Gordon, tackling him in a hug. Already expecting this from his prior knowledge of Coomer’s behaviour, Gordon had already placed his drink down before he was violently slammed into the ground. Needless to say, he was pretty surprised to see Coomer there. 

He let out a groan as he tried to regain his breath. “Hey… Doctor Coomer…” He huffed tiredly as the older man sat up with a victorious smile. For a moment, the elder’s eyes flickered to his prosthetic arm and a pensive look overtook his eyes for a moment. He quickly shook himself out of it, staring at Gordon with a bright grin and sparkling eyes. 

“Hello, Gordon!” He greeted loudly. God, that was a greeting he hadn’t heard for a fucking while. He never thought he’d hear it again after what happened to the labs. “What brings you to our fine bar?” 

Gordon let out a tired chuckle as he pushed himself off of the floor and into a sitting position. “Just trying to get some frustrations out before Joshie comes back next week,” he replied with a huff. Ugh, he forgot how tough Coomer was. Said man gasped and grinned brightly.

“And how is young Joshua?” He asked. Coomer had met Josh once. It had been a really cold day so school was out, but Gordon still had work so he was forced to take him. Luckily, Coomer covered for him with the boss and watched Josh while his father worked. A week after that, Josh got into boxing for a brief amount of time. Thank god it didn’t last long, Gordon’s ribs wouldn’t be able to take it. 

He shrugged a little bit, sighing. “Not bad. He’s gotten into cowboys recently. I’m lucky to be able to fall back on some of my old lab money to pay for all the stuff he wants. Not his fault, though,” he muttered. Coomer gave him a smile and stood up, holding out a hand to his ex-coworker who still sat on the ground. Gordon took his hand and pulled himself up, smiling back, albeit tiredly. 

Trying desperately to ignore the curious stares of the other patrons, Gordon walked back to the bar, Coomer following. “Ah, Bubby, dear, could you tell Tommy to take the kitchen while I catch up with Doctor- ah, Mr Freeman?” 

Bubby, though mildly confused, nodded and moved to the employees only room and shouted something. Gordon tried not to pay attention too much as a tall man rushed out of the room and into the kitchen. He turned his gaze back to Coomer who gave him a warm smile. That was something he had missed. Dr Coomer had such a fatherly vibe about him it was so nice to be in his presence. The brunette stared for a moment, trying to bring up a topic that wasn’t ‘how the fuck are you alive, didn’t the lab fucking blow up??’ 

“I can tell you’re thinking too hard, Gordon, do calm down!” Coomer laughed, a knowing glint in his eyes. A sheepish laugh left Gordon’s lips as he rubbed the back of his neck with prosthetic. A grimace took over his nervous smile as he sipped his cinnamony drink, wincing at the spice. 

“What happened to Black Mesa? Did you leave before the whole…?” He asked quietly. Coomer smiled a little bit. He gestured for Gordon to follow as he stood up and moved towards the back room. Slightly widening his eyes, Gordon followed anxiously, bringing his drink.

Hoo boy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Mr Freeman? You want to know about Black Mesa? Just get through the chapter filler, first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the fucking weird spacing of chapters im a shitty writer. enjoy the chapter. have to establish some plot shit. also!!! i highly encourage comments! i thrive on constructive criticism, questions and validation!

Despite the fact that he’s known Coomer for years, he was still nervous around the small man. Maybe it was the fact that he was aware of the man’s incredible and inhuman strength. Sure, he wasn’t exactly the most normal either, on account of his missing hand and the fact he could still feel it (no, not in the phantom pain way and no he doesn’t want to talk about it), but he still couldn’t help but feel unsettled. He knew that he really shouldn’t question it but, god, it was tempting at times.

One time, during testing, a monster exited a portal they were working on and Coomer punched it so hard it hit the ceiling. The ceiling was like, 60 feet high! Taking a nervous sip of his spicy cocktail, he trailed behind the old man, his flesh hand shaking slightly. Whether he was scared of the answers he may get or Harold himself was a whole nother question. 

Coomer was rambling on about something as he gestured for Gordon to enter the room first. Gratefully, he did so, striding across the room to take a seat on the couch. The couch was… very uncomfortable but honestly, it was fine. 

“So! Gordon, before we get to the horrid, traumatising part of our conversation, how have you been? Besides Joshua.” Coomer asked kindly, taking a seat next to Gordon and smiling brightly. 

Grimacing at the words, the brunette shrugged. “Eh. Took up a streaming gig. I’m doing pretty well for myself, really, just a bit tiring. Think Rob’s getting a bit concerned.” ‘Rob’ being Robert, his ex-husband and best friend. Gordon let out a tired chuckle, taking another long sip of his drink. For a moment, Coomer glanced at his prosthetic worriedly. 

“And the hand?” He asked. Gordon knew he wasn’t talking about the piece of metal and plastic acting as his arm. He was talking about the actual hand. Gordon rolled his eyes but felt slightly endeared. Coomer was the only one who took his claims seriously. Even after he quit. 

“Still feel it. It’s… somewhere damp. And warm-ish?” He explained, with a lilt of concern in his tone. It felt almost body temperature, but he didn’t want to think about it. It hurt to think about it too hard anyways. The… stump was always mildly uncomfortable when thinking about it, but focussing on it was too much. To dull the aching and itching feeling, he downed the rest of his drink, wincing hard at the spice and burn.

Wincing, the older scientist grimaced. “... that doesn’t sound good,” he replied in his ‘serious Coomer voice’, as Gordon had dubbed it. It was a much deeper and scary tone that Coomer reserved for serious situations instead of using his normal, lighthearted and downright silly sounding voice.

Gordon sighed, running his flesh hand through his frizzed up hair. All of the commotion knocked a lot of it out of it’s ponytail. “Yeah, I noticed,” he huffed, sighing and melting into the uncomfortable couch. Tiredly laughing and closing his eyes, he grumbled quietly for a second before speaking up after a moment of silence. “So. Black Mesa.”

Coomer’s posture straightened almost imperceptibly. But along with his relentless paranoia, Gordon’s always had sharp senses. “Yes. Ah, before I tell you this, Gordon, you should know that it is technically a government secret!” Harold began with a bright grin. That was normal for Black Mesa, so Gordon simply shrugged and gestured for him to continue. “Well! There was a resonance cascade!”

If Gordon had been drinking, he would have done a spit take. “A fucking resonance cascade???” He hissed. He didn’t study at MIT for fucking nothing. He didn’t know much about them, admittedly. But he knew they were dangerous and very, very bad. The fallout alone would be horrible. 

“Yes! Sadly, they never replaced you with a good enough scientist, so a very important test was ruined! Bubby, the bartender and my husband, escaped with Benrey, Tommy, Darnold and I! You’ve met Benrey, I’m aware?” Coomer asked curiously.

Gordon numbly nodded, still processing. “Y-yeah. Weird looking person with the helmet, right?”

Coomer nodded happily. “That’s the one! He’s a bit shy, usually. Well, in his own way, he’s shy. Did you two have a good talk?” He asked with a bit of concern in his eyes. It was very slight, but Gordon knew the look. He’s gotten it from a lot of people. Not from Coomer yet though.

He shrugged with a slight frown. “It was fine. I guess he was a bit weird at first, but we talked a bit about video games before he coughed up something and left. I was kinda worried but figured he seemed mostly fine.” 

Honestly, that conversation almost seemed like the most normal thing of the night at this point. Benrey, aside from their appearance and general first persona, was kinda nice. They were quiet, which was pleasant and they liked video games. Sure, they were a bit annoying to get through to but it wasn’t really an issue once they actually started talking.

As if they were summoned, Benrey clipped through the wall, coming from what looked to be a back alley. They stared at the two men with a blank kind of intrigue. 

You may be asking why Gordon was skimming over the ‘clipping through the wall’ thing. Well. Honestly? He wasn’t fucking surprised. With the resonance cascade shit, along with the pale skin, constant shadow over their eyes, weird coughing and bright yellow eyes, he had kind of gathered that Benrey wasn’t exactly human.

“yo,” they greeted blandly, heading for the little room connected off of the staff room. They paused right outside of it, looking at Gordon curiously. “coomer, what’s babyface gordos doing back here?”

The old man grinned and Gordon huffed out a laugh at the name. “I’m simply filling Mr Freeman in on the Black Mesa Tragedy! He used to work there.” He replied. A second after he revealed that, a look of surprise and regret crossed Coomer’s face, like he said something he shouldn’t have. And with Benrey’s reaction, it looked like he did. 

For a moment, Benrey looked shocked. And then their shock faded to something akin to anger. And then back to their regular expressionless discontent. “when?” Their tone was quiet, but a bit gruff.

Gordon grimaced a little bit. Why did Coomer have to tell everyone that he used to work there? “About 2 years back, I think. Why?” He asked. Honestly, he wasn’t that invested but his remaining scientific curiosity poked at the back of his head. 

At this, Benrey looked even more angry and huffed. “no reason,” they grumbled and clipped through the door into the conjoined room.

There was a silence in the room for a second before Gordon looked to Coomer incredulously. What just happened? Everything from the night was catching up to him and he was starting to feel a little bit light headed, and even though he was already sitting, he felt like he was about to fall over. “W… what just happened?” Gordon finally voiced his thoughts as he leaned over the small coffee table where his empty glass sat, his forearms resting on it. 

“I believe I just made a fucky-wucky, Gordon!” 

1 second. 

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

Gordon burst out laughing.

“W-what the fuck, Doctor Coomer?!” He cackled. It was almost reassuring to know that Coomer hadn’t lost his strange ass sense of humor. Well, to be perfectly honest, he never knew if Coomer was joking or not, that was just a part of his charm, he supposed. He slowed his laughter to a chuckle as Coomer just stared with a grin. Breathing a bit heavily, he paused. “But really, what was that?” 

Benrey didn’t seem like the type of person to get upset that easily. What about his old job made them so upset? Didn’t they work there too?? 

“I… don’t think I should tell you, Gordon. There’s still a chance for you two to become friends, even after my mistake!” The man smiled, even if it seemed a bit strained. Gordon sighed in response and leaned on one of his forearms. 

This was so fucking vague and confusing, but it was the most socialising that he actually enjoyed in a god dammed while. It was… nice. “Fine. I probably should get home. Uh. Just a question, if you don’t mind?”

“Ask away, Gordon!” 

“In the day time… does this place just function as, like, a place to eat? I’d love to take Joshie here sometime.” Coomer brightened at the question and nodded enthusiastically. 

“Yes! There is no drinking before 5pm! I’d recommend bringing Young Joshua in on a Monday, Thursday or Sunday! That’s when Tommy brings in his dog, Sunkist! Ah! And on Fridays, we have a karaoke night!” Coomer explained animatedly, grinning ear to ear. 

Nodding a bit dazedly, Gordon smiled. “Sure thing, Coomer.” He stood and wobbled for a bit. Not even from the alcohol. Though he was slightly tipsy, it was mostly the mental overload. Coomer worriedly glanced at him but he quickly waved the older man off, willing to go home on his own. It wasn’t that far anyways. “Thanks for the talk. I won’t spread any secrets or anything. I’ll see you around.” He muttered, leaving the back room.

Some of the patrons stared at him. Mostly with curiosity but some with wonder. Some even with slight jealousy. He needed to leave the sound of Dr Feelgood. He skulked towards the door, keeping his head down and hands in his pockets, trying specifically to hide his prosthetic. The tingly, itchy feeling was still there.

Exiting the bar was both a relief and still gave him an ominous feeling. He knew he’d be back and at first, he thought it might be nice. But he only knew Coomer and Benrey seemed angry and it might be dangerous. 

Even so, he knew he’d come back.

Well. Time to go sleep off the headache. Hopefully he won’t feel his arm in the morning too.


End file.
